Salmon 2: Electric Boogaloo

I didn't ruin the salmon. Yay! I'm pretty sure this is the first fish I've ever cooked from a real fish counter instead of a box, and it went pretty well for a first try.

I used this grilled salmon marinade from allrecipes.com:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
garlic powder to taste
lemon pepper to taste

The recipe said this was the right amount for 1 1/2 pounds of fish and that's more or less what I had. I was supposed to marinate for 2 hours and then grill, but instead I marinated for about 1/2 an hour ('cause I found the recipe right before dinner--way to be prepared) and then wrapped the fish in foils with some marinade poured around them. One piece of salmon (I think it was a salmon steak? I don't know) per foil, baked at 425F for about 15 minutes.

And it tasted pretty good. The kids asked for more, so that's a bonus. I realized as I was eating that if I was cooking the fish in foil I probably didn't need that much oil in the marinade, but it still didn't feel greasy.

Salmon

Just to prove I haven't totally forgotten our awesome food blog even though I haven't cooked anything worth sharing in a while, we're cooking salmon tonight and I'm telling you about it. That's right, I'm learning to cook fish. I've been rethinking a lot of stuff lately and how there are some things that I do more because I've been doing them a long time than because I actually care about them deeply. And I decided to go flexitarian, I guess. I still like all the vegetarian food I make and it's a great way to be healthy, but it really is nice to order a regular hamburger at a restaurant or not be confined to side dishes at potlucks and such.
But that means I have to get my meat cookin' skills back, and today it's gonna be salmon. I haven't googled recipes or seasoning ideas yet, but I'll let y'all know how it goes and whether I ruin a nice piece of fish or not. :)

Tomato and Sweet Potato Stew

Made a new recipe out of the crock pot cookbook that Akiko got me last year. It came out really well, so here it is, with only the minorest of modifications.

Assumes a 5-qt slow cooker. Makes enough for 2 people to eat for two or three days, or more people to eat for fewer days. YMMV.

Ingredients:
2 large or 3 small chicken breasts
2 large sweet potatoes
2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
1 carrot
1 parsnip
1 28-oz can whole stewed tomatoes
1 tspn salt
1 tspn paprika
1 tspn celery seeds
1/2 tspn black pepper
1/8 tspn ground cinnamon
1/8 tspn ground nutmeg
1 cup chicken broth
basil to taste

1. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and put in the crock pot.

2. Peel the potatoes and sweet potatoes and cut into large chunks. Put in crock pot.

3. Peel carrot and parsnip and cut into smaller chunks than the potatoes. Put in crock pot.

4. Add the tomatoes with liquid.

5. Add spices EXCEPT basil.

6. Add chicken broth and stir.

7. Cook on high for 5 hours.

8. Serve. Sprinkle basil on to taste.

Couldn't be easier to make, and the result was heavenly. The sweetness of the sweet potatoes and the parsnip seep into the broth and blend perfectly with the heat of the paprika and the aromatic flavor of the celery seeds, and the cinnamon and nutmeg supply a nice richness. The basil adds the perfect finishing touch. (I used dried from a bottle. The recipe calls for fresh, but I have a feeling that might overpower it.)

It's edible after 4 hours, but the extra hour made the veggies nice and tender.